Pages

Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Trendy Be Damned

I don't often talk about home decorating here on Flotsam of the Mind, especially if there was no DIY involved. If I did it myself, you can be sure I'm going to tell everyone about it, but today I'm going to tell you about a thing I bought at a store (Home Goods). I share my recent purchase with you for three reasons:

I'm going to skip head to number 2 and confess that I purchased a sunburst mirror. If you frequent home or design sites, you have seen a nauseating number of the ultra-trendy sunburst mirrors. I have. If you're not familiar with the ubiquity of the item, Google "sunburst mirror" and view the multitude of images available. The one above, by Global Designs, can be purchased at Amazon for a mere $447.50.

I claim no design experience--or skill for that matter--but I occasionally enjoy looking at home design sites. As a result, I am over the sunburst mirror. It is overdone. Every room on every site has something chevron and a damn sunburst mirror. I've grown weary of them. I mock them. And yet, there is now one on my wall. The hypocrisy is nearly killing me, as is the weight of owning something trendy.

I have had a big empty spot above my family room couch since we moved into this house six years ago. Every now and then, I consider hanging a picture there, but nothing has ever been big enough. The room doesn't get much light, so I had a flash of inspiration that a mirror might both fill the wall space and help the lighting.

When I was at Home Goods for a completely different reason, I remembered this brilliant idea and predictably began browsing large, rectangular framed mirrors. I even bored myself.

I drifted across the aisle to the more interesting mirrors and saw one that caught my eye. I looked at it. Walked away. Came back, looked some more. Moved it around and tried to take a picture of it. Accepted that I really liked it and tried to convince myself it was not, in fact, a sunburst mirror. Reminding myself I could always return it, I purchased it. Now the wall looks like this.

There is a so-trendy-it's-probably-over sunburst mirror on my wall, and I think it's perfect. Like most of my house, the entire room is made of right angles: boxy furniture, rectangular tables, rectangular frames, and square-patterned faux roman shades. The circle mixes things up a bit. I hope the mirror reflects a little light to brighten up the place, and lamplight shows the bronze in the metal, adding a new color and depth to the room.

It doesn't seem like a sunburst mirror to me either -- I really like it -- it's very architectural. Oh -- and can I just say how much I HATE Chevron. It's everywhere -- the scrapbooking world is exploding with it. Yuck.